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Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
at Istanbul (2004)]] at Kiev (2005)]] at Helsinki (2007)]] at Belgrade (2008)]] & The Islanders at Oslo (2010)]] Cyprus made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981. Cyprus' best result, fifth place, has been achieved on three occasions: in 1982 with Anna Vissi, 1997 with Hara & Andreas Constantinou, and 2004 with Lisa Andreas. History of Cyprus at the Eurovision Song Contest Since its first entry, Cyprus has participated every year except 1988 and 2001. In 1988, Cyprus withdrew its entry after broadcaster CyBC determined that the intended entry was ineligible; the song had been entered (but not selected) in the 1984 national selection process, which was a violation of the Cypriot selection rules. In 2001, the country did not qualify for the contest due to insufficiently high average scores in previous contests, according to the qualification process at the time. Most of the Cypriot entries have been sung in Greek or English; the exceptions are in 2000, in which the song "Nomiza" included both Greek and Italian, and in the 2007 contest, in which Evridiki performed "Comme Ci, Comme Ça" entirely in French. Voting Cyprus is famous for always exchanging 12 points with Greece in the Semi Final and Final, though there have been exceptions. The last time Cyprus gave Greece less than 12 points was in 1996 (10 points), while the last time Greece gave Cyprus less than 12 points was in 1995 (8 points). Since the advent of televoting in 1998, the two countries have consistently given each other the maximum 12 points. Cyprus and Turkey, another participant, never voted for each other until 2003, a taboo attributed to the ongoing Cyprus dispute. Turkey invaded in response to a Greek backed coup and occupied northern Cyprus in 1974, and still refuses to recognize the Republic of Cyprus, a full EU and EBU member. Popularity of the Contest Since its first entry in 1981, Cyprus has had a mixture of good and bad results. The best result achieved so far is a fifth place, reached by Anna Vissi in 1982, Hara and Andreas Constantinou in 1997 and Lisa Andreas in 2004. The lowest result was a last place in 1986, with the song "Tora Zo" sung by Elpida. In the 1980s and 1990s, Cyprus had managed to reach the top 10 a number of times, something which made the Contest become popular in the Cypriot public. Since the last best result of the country in 2004, Cyprus's performance has dropped notably. From 2006 to 2009 and again in 2011, the country didn't manage to reach the final. At the same time when Cyprus's performance in the contest dropped vertically, Greece's performance improved very fast by one win and seven top ten results in one decade. This created a shift of interest, with the Cypriot public being more interested in the success of the Greek entry. This is probably because Greece, since 2004, seems to send very popular singers that have a well established fan-club in Cyprus, while Cyprus usually elects their contestants through an open contest, which often results in young and somewhat unknown artists representing the country. Contestants Voting history (1981-2011) Cyprus has given the most points to... Cyprus has received the most points from... NOTE: The totals in the above tables include only points awarded in Eurovision finals, and not the semi-finals since 2004. Since introducing the semi-finals in 2004 Cyprus has given the most points to... Cyprus has received the most points from... NOTE: The tables with points from 2004 include points awarded in both finals and semi-finals where the highest point from the final/semi-final is picked. Commentators * In addition since 2009 british writer and TV presenter Nathan Morley has provided the CyBC Radio commentary. References External links *eurovision-cyprus.com - Eurovision Song Contest Cyprus *eurovisioncyprus.ueuo.com - Cyprus Eurovision website (in Greek & English) *National Final Cyprus *Points to and from Cyprus eurovisioncovers.co.uk *Music.net.cy - Cyprus National Finals 2010 (in Greek)